


stars in your eyes

by pallasjoanna



Series: in any world, in any story (Kurotsuki Week 2016) [1]
Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Age Swap AU, KuroTsuki Week 2016, M/M, Pre-Relationship, Prompt: Age, first year Kuroo, third year Tsukki
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-30
Updated: 2016-06-30
Packaged: 2018-07-19 06:14:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,583
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7348378
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pallasjoanna/pseuds/pallasjoanna
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"It's not a crisis," Kuroo says to his rice bowl.</p><p>"He called dibs," Bokuto says sagely. "It totally is."</p><p>(Or, a first year Kuroo finds himself crushing on Mr. Tall Blonde and Handsome.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	stars in your eyes

 

“That’s the fifth time today, Kuroo-san,” Keiji says as Kuroo sighs, yet again, like he’s determined to suck all the air from the cafeteria and drag everyone along in his not-quite misery. He’s only known Kuroo for a few days—maybe longer if he counts Bokuto’s tales of him—but Keiji at least knows he can take subtlety better than Bokuto does.

Kuroo doesn’t say anything. He just looks up from his phone and gives off a sixth deliberate sigh, his equivalent of a child sticking their tongue out, and stares at some fixed point over and beyond Keiji’s shoulder.

Bokuto doesn’t say anything either, too busy picking up food from their shared plate of meat with the same enthusiasm he holds for most things in life. Keiji takes his cue from him after a few seconds. If it isn’t making his best friend worry, then maybe Keiji doesn’t have to worry about it either. Or yet.

He finishes his vegetables first.

Then Bokuto sets down his chopsticks with a force that rattles the whole table, and his eyes sparkle when he turns to Keiji. “Hey, hey! Kuroo’s going through a crisis, Akaashi-senpai!” Bokuto replies, Keiji’s silent message seen 12:07 PM.

“Oh. What kind of crisis?”

“Well, Akaashi, Kuroo’s in _loooooooove—_ “

Bokuto happens to be one of those people with no indoor voice at all; his whisper is not even a stage whisper. The neighboring Nekoma table erupts in snickers, one particularly loud hoot coming from the tallest one in their bunch. Kuroo, finally back to the land of the living and the present, turns red as he flips them off and glares daggers at Bokuto.

“Bokuto,” Kuroo says, “is exaggerating. There is no crisis, you hear me? Nope, zero, nada.”

“You didn’t deny the second part,” Keiji points out. He stops Bokuto from flinging an unwanted bell pepper onto his plate.

Kuroo turns even redder, staring at the spot behind Keiji again. Keiji doesn’t turn—the secondhand embarrassment isn’t tempting—but he remembers that he saw the Karasuno team sitting by the back of the cafeteria when Keiji walked in. That, and the fact that they make enough noise to give the combined forces of Fukurodani and Nekoma a run for their money. Like he’s said, he hasn’t known Kuroo for long, but if he had to hazard a guess—

He takes a sip of water. “Although he may seem intimidating, he’s a pleasant enough person to be around. At least when you’re not the one he’s verbally eviscerating.”  

Kuroo is still staring, not quite paying attention. “Who?”

“Captain of the Karasuno volleyball team, Tsukishima-san.”

Kuroo sputters. Bokuto positively howls, slapping the table into what could be near collapse. Keiji lets himself feel smug for a few seconds, laughing quietly behind his palm.

“Not a crisis,” Kuroo repeats to his rice bowl.

Bokuto wipes a few tears from the corner of his eyes. “He called dibs,” he says sagely. “It totally is.”

 

*

 

Okay, so maybe it was a bit of a crisis.

All was good in the world that morning – the coach was thinking of assigning him as a starter by the time the next official match came around, so Tetsurou had enough optimism to spare as he woke up at the ungodly hour of four in the morning. He definitely did not expect to deal with a few revelations by the time the Karasuno volleyball team arrived on campus.

One, as he found out with a speed that left him stunned, he is so gay. Definitely gay. No more ‘probably’ about it as he had thought just a heartbeat before his Big Gay Revelation.

”Whatchu looking at, Kuroo? Karasuno? Ooh, their captain looks like one mean middle blocker, right?” Bokuto had slung a heavy arm around his shoulder; Kenma had sidestepped Tetsurou’s weight without looking up from his PSP.

Second, the catalyst of the Big Gay Revelation. Tetsurou didn’t even know he had a type until the said person descended from the bus with a pinched look on his face—the look of a person who hates the mornings—glasses just a bit askew, and a height like it’s his own personal ambition. Mister Tall Blonde and Handsome had looked like every bit a pissed-off angel, and it had done a few funny things to Tetsurou’s heart without his permission.

And then Tetsurou, still a bit dazed and starstruck—“I’m calling dibs.”

He likes to think that he’s already dealt with it when afternoon practice rolls around. Or maybe not, because he does look at Karasuno’s side of the gym far too often for it to be about volleyball.

At one point, he sees Tsukishima and the so called Flying Shrimp of Karasuno get into some sort of an argument, nothing serious if the looks on their teammates is any basis. But Tsukishima’s face twists into a taunt, drawing himself up to full height against the already sizeable height difference, and wow, Tetsurou is a total goner.

“So,” he tells Bokuto the next evening, “If you were planning to do something about your big fat crush on Akaashi—”

Bokuto slaps a hand over Tetsurou’s mouth. “HOW DID YOU KNOW?”

“ARE YOU SERIOUS.” He pries off Bokuto’s hand. It feels like he’s knocked a few teeth loose. “ _ARE YOU SERIOUS_.”

But the panicked look on Bokuto’s face tells him that, yes, Bokuto is serious, and he doesn’t think that all his talk about Akaashi-senpai this and Akaashi-senpai that is like him flashing this giant neon sign. It probably reads, ‘TAKE ME, AKAASHI-SENPAI!’

“Bro code,” Tetsurou promises solemnly.

Bokuto nods while managing to somehow strangle a volleyball. “Bro code.”

Then after a moment of silence, Tetsurou continues, “But anyway, if Akaashi looked like he could and would punch you, how would you try talking to him?”

“Food? Akaashi always likes the things I make.”

“Well, damn, do you think Tsukishima looks like the type for cake?”

“He looks so salty, Kuroo, I mean—hey, hey!” Bokuto flails his arms in Akaashi’s direction. Tetsurou is suddenly very glad that Akaashi had been in the bathroom a few minutes ago. He does not need to suffer Bokuto’s secondhand embarrassment. “Akaashi! Akaashi-senpai!”

“Yes, Bokuto-san?”

“Akaashi!” Bokuto glows like the neon sign that Tetsurou had been talking about, and Tetsurou doesn’t miss the way that it makes Akaashi smile. Wow. Okay, maybe there wouldn’t have been much secondhand embarrassment involved, the lucky bastard. “You know Tsukishima-san, right?”

Akaashi shrugs. “We’re acquaintances, but yes.”

“Well see, Kuroo has a big fat crush on him already and—“

“ _Bro._ ” Kuroo clutches his chest. He’s being benevolent by exercising remarkable restraint for someone two steps away from a volleyball cart. “I bro code you, and this is how you repay me?”

“But Akaashi’s like, beyond the bro code. He eventually knows everything,” Bokuto says.

“I don’t, Bokuto-san,” Akaashi says. “But I did meet Tsukishima-san in the bathroom. He might pass through here.”

That is how Tetsurou ends up leaning against the doorway with Bokuto, risking the wrath of the mosquitos outside and with him feeling a bit like a creep as he watches Tsukishima walk in the direction of the third gym.

And Tetsurou thinks, as Tsukishima draws near, that he looks softer at night, like the kanji in his name does mean for something. His glasses reflect the bright gym lights, and with a downward tilt of his face, Tetsurou can see his eyes—honey gold and brown, a flicker of emotions playing across them. It’s a crush, maybe shallow and fleeting but for now, Tetsurou wants to chance to _know_.

So he talks.

 

*

 

“Can I have your number?” Kuroo asks Kei half an hour before they leave for Miyagi.

Kuroo, as Kei had found out this training camp, is memorable for reasons other than his hair and perpetual crooked grin.

He’s good, Kei will give him that, armed with a sharp kind of enthusiasm that contributes to skill, something that Kei didn’t quite have until sometime in second year. It’s also not everyday that someone asks him for blocking tips by provoking him. Kei took the bait anyway yesterday night, stepping into the third gym’s bright lights even if he was on his way to Karasuno’s sleeping quarters.

“I don’t mind,” Kei says, reaching out to take Kuroo’s phone from him. “For volleyball tips?”

The latter was a rhetorical question, but he hears Kuroo’s shoes scuff against the ground. “Well.”

“Hm?” Kei looks up.

Kuroo—Kei squints, but he’s just cleaned his glasses—looks kind of red. “We could also, you know, text each other. Like friends?” Kei doesn’t know what his face looks like in that moment, and Kuroo adds, “If it’s alright with you, Tsukishima-san.”

Kei won’t lie. He’s still confused at things like these, things like the fact that there are people who do bother with him outside of volleyball or outside of school, even after they’ve dealt with his sharp tongue. And he likes to think that he’s grown substantially since first year. He’s tried being kinder to others and himself.

What Kei is trying to say, that even if he’s on the cusp of eighteen, he still has much to learn if things like these, if earnest sincere people like Kuroo still catch him off guard.

Kei wants to see how this goes.

“Like I said—“ Kuroo looks a bit too hopeful for just the promise of communicating even from 360 kilometers away; Kei will wonder about that later. “I don’t mind, Kuroo-san.”

**Author's Note:**

> \- Kuroo and Tsukki do the long distance friend thing for several months, and Kuroo's crush gets ever worse.  
> \- He's more than ecstatic when he hears that Tsukki is going to university in Tokyo.  
> \- He finds out that the feeling's mutual when he's in third year. They don't officially start dating until after Kuroo turns eighteen because Tsukishima does care about things like that (because he's the older one in the AU; Tsukki couldn't care less in canonverse) 
> 
> this was supposed to be humorous with kuroo consulting shoujo manga at one point but then it took a turn for the sentimental in the last third huh. you can tell that it's already 12:30 past midnight where i am.
> 
> i also have another exam tomorrow. help.


End file.
